Euronav shares up after announcing one-off dividend benefitting CMB

CMB.TECH NV

21/03/2024 16:05

** Shares in Euronav  EUAV.BR  soar 5.2%, on track for a
best day since Oct. 10, after the Belgian tanker company
announced a one-off dividend on Wednesday 
    ** Euronav proposed a dividend of $4.57 per share, for over
90% Belgian withholding tax exempted, a "surprising"
announcement according to an ING note
    ** "The main beneficiary is CMB which in our view will
receive almost $800m, used to repay part of the debt caused by
the acquisition of many Euronav shares," says ING analyst
Quirijn Mulder
    ** "This payout is proposed to be a combination of a
dividend and a repayment from the share issue premium," ING says
    ** Euronav deems this approach "optimal" for shareholders,
since "the share issuance payment part of the distribution will
represent more than 90% of the distribution"
    ** Evercore analyst Jonathan Chappel told Reuters the share
move is "100% owing to the dividend proposal"
    ** Following the results of mandatory takeover bid by CMB on
Monday, the Belgian maritime group CMB and its affiliates hold
88.61% of Euronav outstanding shares, which caused Euronav
shares to drop by 3.3% in early trading on Tuesday
    ** Out of 6 analysts that cover Euronav, two rate the stock
"strong buy" or "buy, "​four rate "hold" and no analysts rate
the stock "strong sell" or "sell"

 (Reporting by Stéphanie Hamel and Alban Kacher)
 ((stephanie.hamel@thomsonreuters.com))